Doing Mathematics

I had a thought this morning biking home from school (our first day is next Thursday). What is the goal I have for my students? Well, to learn mathematics. In order for that to happen, I need to maximize the amount of time that students are actually doing mathematics. Everything I plan should be centered around this.

This begs the question, though - what is "doing mathematics"? First, it's easy to list a few things that it is not. Doing mathematics is not:

• taking notes
• listening to me talk
• drill & kill assignments
• taking tests

Already, so there is one guide post - minimize the amount of time doing these activities.

As for doing mathematics, I like the way that Keith Devlin describes it:

"Doing math" involves all kinds of mental capacities: numerical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, linguistic reasoning, symbolic reasoning, spatial reasoning, logical reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning, reasoning about causality, the ability to handle abstractions, and maybe some others I have overlooked. And for success, all those need to be topped off with a dose of raw creativity and a desire - for some of us an inner need - to pursue the subject and do well at it.

However, I'm having a difficult time describing exactly what "doing mathematics" means. In my mind, it's more of "I know it when I see it", so I need to work on clarifying what it means. Some activities that I think do fall under this umbrella:

• Solving novel problems
• Student-generated questions
• Investigations
• Cooperative groupwork
• Communicating reasoning and thinking
• Proving conjectures
• Finding patterns

This list could go on and on, but my takeaway has been this. All planning should be focused on maximizing the amount of time that my students are doing mathematics.

Making Assessment Part of Teaching

I spent the first part of the summer thinking about whether I should give standards-based grading a shot my first year or not. Actually, that's not true. I spent the first month of my summer in Germany and Spain. After that I started thinking about grading.

My wife and I hiking up to Schloss Neuschwanstein

Anyway, all it took was a little nudge from some teachers on Twitter along with support from my chair and administration. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been working on designing my grading system, and discovered a major reason to implement SBG: it actually gets me excited about assessment!

During my student teaching, I felt that assessment was one of the worst parts of teaching. A necessary evil. I loved teaching, but when it came to giving tests and passing out only vaguely meaningful grades, it was just something I had to make it through. And then I had to deal with students negotiating for another point or pleading for extra credit. We were never discussing their learning, we were discussing how many points they had and how many they needed. Ugh.

Now, when I'm working on designing my system and assessments, it feels more like teaching than test giving. The focus is specifically on what I want students to learn and their progress. Hopefully the conversations will mirror this.

I think this alone is a good enough reason to try SBG.

The Coming Year - Technology In My Classroom

In a little more than a month, I will begin my first year as a high school math teacher. Having a vague understanding of how challenging it is going to be, as well as knowing my tendency to take on too much, one of my goals before the year starts is to have a plan for the technology I am going to use, its purpose, and how I am going to incorporate it into my teaching.

In choosing which technologies I will use, I am using the following as my requirements:

• Free to use as in cost. Truly free software is a bonus.
• Cross-platform. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux without a fight.
• No downloads or installations required, other than a reasonably modern browser.
• Limited number of registrations and sign ups.
• Ease of use. I want to teach math, not technology.

That being said, here are the weapons I plan on brandishing:

GeoGebra

Absolutely amazing mathematics software designed for teaching and learning mathematics. While it's not always the most intuitive software to use, its dynamic and interactive nature make it a powerful tool in the classroom. There are loads of tutorials and ready-to-use materials on the main website.

Python

I absolutely agree with Conrad Wolfram that teaching a bit of programming is crucial in teaching mathematics in the twenty first century. Python is my programming language of choice for many reasons. Also, Google's Exploring Computational Thinking is a great resource (and they even posted one of my lessons from my student teaching!).

Google Docs

If you have never used Google Docs before, I highly recommend it. I often hear it described as Microsoft Office in the cloud, but it is much more than that. It puts collaboration and sharing at the center of the process. Students are able to work on the same document at the same time, chat online together, track who made changes and when, and so much more. And it keeps getting better.

Twitter/Google+

For most of the summer, I simply assumed that I would be using Twitter, but the recent (beta) release of Google+ has been rethinking that. I love the idea of back-channeling, communication, and collaboration inside and outside of the classroom, as well as giving students a different way to contribute. Circles, hangouts, and sparks (Google+ features) are promising features. Here is an evolving presentation on some potential uses of Google+ in education (and a great example of Google Docs in action!).

The math and tech geek in me is excited. These tools have the potential to engage students with mathematics at a level far beyond my high school experience, and that was not all that long ago.

Oh, and please leave comments! I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions and learn about new resources.

Next post: How I plan on using technology for continual professional development and reflection.